Sensitized
by saphiredmoon
Summary: A quick story on possibly what Melan thought and felt before and after he meets Marin in the Pasca chamber.  Based on episode 24 and 25.


It spurned itself into his mind, greedily grasping for his thoughts and overflowing them with its unyielding command: do your duty. Kill Marine.

He gasped for air as if it would lessen the strength of the intrusion, but his mind still throbbed. The bombardment of its fierce domination shredding what was left of his mind, filling it with murky voids and strenuous lies.

Kill Marine.

He could feel the stretch of his armor as it remade itself. His sword sharpening and his gun quivering with newly found energy. The tingling of deep scars and the almost silent slosh of blood began to fade. It felt natural. But he knew that it wasn't. He could feel the bitter coldness that surrounded his ampoule and the sharpness of the edges in which he was contained. There was no soft warm pocket for him to reside in.

He remembered the tenderness of being so close to someone who was precious to protect…

Duty…

And the malicious command barked through his aching mind once again: Kill Marine. That is your duty.

The crisp memories that he knew he had come to cherish, but couldn't figure out why, turned to mush and decomposed with every shove of its force. He felt more then remembered how they turned into nothing and suddenly he realized that there was space. Empty space.

Kill Marine.

Instead of feeling the throb of power, he felt a soft wave of urgency go through him.

His duty was to kill Marine. Why had he resisted his duty? He was a Gun Swordsman. Proud and under oath to his comrades and to Brigadoon. Then like the flash of one of Pyon's shots his mind cleared itself of its proverbial fog and he knew what needed to be done. He needed to complete his duty.

He activated his release from his ampoule state and stared for a moment to gather where he had been kept. It appeared to be a normal room, with a machine monomakia connected to a small rough container that was most likely where his ampoule had been stationed before. With little care as to why he had been there in the first place, he spread his wing like appendages and in a dark flash of blue swiftly flew out from the room.

His sensors pinged at him as he tried to find a trace of Marine's unique signature while he continued onward with his search. He hardly noted the dented decrepit walls or the grizzled sand brown color of the bricks that traversed through Brigadoon. His sole focus was trying to find the signal and then obliterate it. He knew it was necessary somehow, but he couldn't recall how he had come to that conclusion or even who had given him the duty in the first place. But it was necessary. Of that much he was certain and the urgency he felt to complete it drove him forward and quickly maximized his flight capabilities. Again his sensors flared to life and he felt a sort of accomplishment as he recognized the signal. He could tell he was getting close and the anticipation of finally confronting and finishing his duty was met with a silent creeping relief as he noticed his target.

He found her in a barely lit room occupied with something or another.

The girl was in a lime green dress, the frills delicately dancing below her waist and he could hear the sharp clicking of her heeled shoes. He briefly wondered how this girl had become a threat but promptly deemed it inconsequential to his mission. The medium sized bee monomakia though was something he wasn't expecting but it could be easily dealt with. Slowly he jetted down behind his target and prepared to eliminate her. But then she turned around and he hesitated for some unknown reason he could not place.

She looked so young. As he stared at her dazzling green eyes and the bubbly movement of her hair he desperately tried to place why he hesitated. Something was missing. He knew there had to be a reason because the second he saw her he suddenly did _not_ want to do his duty. This in itself was preposterous. She stared back at him seemingly recognizing him and then he made up his mind, lifted up his gun arm, and took a shot.

The green sparkling orbs of her eyes widened and she opened her petite mouth and screamed as she rushed towards the other monomakia. Quickly he raced towards her, his sword in position for a swift slash, but the bee monomakia grabbed a hold of her shoulders just in time for him to barely even nick her shoes as it picked up speed and left a cloud of dust with him in its wake.

He had missed his chance. The wave of accomplishment he had felt earlier shriveled and in its place was left the stinging sensation of failure and a harsh push with the burning need to complete his duty. He would not repeat his mistake again.

Once again he raised his appendages and lifted up from the ground, already tracing her faint signal. As he whisked through several passages his sensors alerted him of her signal that was strangely nearby. How could she have crept up so close?

Again, the pushing at the edge of his mind demanded that something be done.

Quickly he flew towards the signal and when he entered a relatively bleak room, the room where Pasca would begin, he noticed a familiar figure. She was standing in front of where Marine was supposed to be placed and she was talking to herself. His sensors kept telling him that the girl was Marine, but the clothes she wore did not fit what he had seen her wear earlier.

"Marine?" He asked nonchalantly as he watched her gasp and look back to see him.

Something was wrong. She was not afraid of him. Instead she smiled brightly and ran towards him happily screaming his name. She was not Marine.

In the blink of an eye, he raised his gun arm and shot her. Her happy cries fell short as he watched her flip over and skid across the floor. Her scarlet liquid tainted the floor as she lifted herself up weakly to stare at him again. She softly said his name and then asked for confirmation as she kneeled there, her body shaking violently.

"That was a warning shot," he said to her while mentally readying himself to dispatch of this minor problem, "I will kill all intruders."

"Kill?" She asked hesitantly. She looked frail and thus being an easy job to finish. His sensors alerted him again. She still had Marine's signal for some reason.

"What are you?" He strongly asked. Marine's signal was unique and practically impossible to copy. Even if someone had managed to do so, the fact that this girl looked exactly like her was a complication. If she could easily distract others with her fake signal and her image perfect resemblance then Marine would have the possibility of being able to escape and, therefore; tarnishing his duty and honor. But where did she come from? If she was a decoy then the only possible explanation would be that the Hensu-chi created her for this purpose!

"It's me! Marin!" The girl screamed and thrashed around. Then she stared pitifully in his direction as she continued to spout her lies. "Don't you remember, Melan?"

"Marin?" Even her name was similar to Marine's. It was now imperative that this _Marin_ was to be dispatched.

She continued to stare and then spoke almost caringly to him. "What's happened to you, Melan?"

He ignored her preferring to say his thoughts on the situation. "An organism that seems to have copied Creis Marine's biological information. But it's different! I will not be tricked. You are a copy created by the Hensu-chi!"

"A copy?" She replied.

"I will kill you. That is my duty." He stared at her face completely now and his body tensed.

"Duty?" She said quietly, almost confused as he walked towards her. She was weak and in no condition to put up any resistance. He would finish this quickly.

He pointed his sword beneath her chin and lifted it up so he could clearly see her face; a perfect replica of Marine. She stared in the direction he was in sadly, her shaking still encompassing her body, and then touched and grabbed his blade with such a grip that her scarlet liquid began to rush out from her tender hands and run down the sharpness of the blade. The act surprised him. She was willingly putting herself in pain. If that was what she wanted he would comply. Quickly and swiftly he pushed his sword through her flesh, ignoring her sharp cries of pain, as he lifted her up to his eye level and then cocked his gun arm in front of her sweet face, ready for the final blow.

"Melan." She said his name so softly and with such a small smile that he almost didn't notice or hear.

"Die."

With that he fired and the force of the blast flung her to a nearby wall and then proceeded to create a hole next to her head. He felt the energy in his gun dissipate as he noticed that he had missed. Slowly she moved her body and stared in his direction.

"How could I miss at this distance?" Confusion silently interrupted his thoughts as he felt the slightest twinge from the pushing trying to force its way through.

"Melan…?" She said softly, moving her head back and forth.

He needed to get rid of her. Again he aimed.

And again he missed, the second hole burned to the right of her head.

"It's not possible!" How could he have missed a second time? Was his gun not functioning properly?

The girl spoke up. "Melan…you haven't changed."

"What?" What lies was she saying now?

She began to stand up, ignoring the protests from her battered body, and continued to talk to him. "Even pointing that gun at me, you haven't changed. You're still the same inside. My Melan, whom I love so much." She was starting to try and walk to him now. "Incredibly strong and incredibly gentle. That's why you can't shoot me." Even with his gun pointed straight at her she still continued to walk to him, the same small smile appearing on her face. "You can't kill me…after all, you are my boyfriend."

What?

"Boyfriend?" He asked in surprise and disbelief. She had to be lying, but with her pathetic display could she be… telling the truth? "And you are…?"

Her legs suddenly gave up on her and she fell to a heap on the floor, but she slowly lifted up her head to smile back at him. "Marin… Marin Asagi."

Thoughtfully he looked back at her. "Marin…? Marin… Asagi?"

His mind fell.

The stinging pain of the forceful intruder was pushed out of his thoughts recklessly as the empty space he had had began to teem with life. Memories, soft and strong, caressed his mind and began to show him what they held so dearly. All of them included her dazzling green eyes. Some she was smiling brightly at him and others she looked pale and miserable, her eyes glazed over and unbearably upset. He remembered the smell of her hair as he knelt down to her, it smelled as sweet as she was, he remembered the tender warm that came from her skin as she rubbed against him at the Nagaya, and he also remembered her cries of fear and her cries of mourning. All of the memories surged through his mind growing stronger and stronger and the feelings attached to them began to overflow and rip through his heart.

He screamed. All these feelings, how could they have remained hidden? He heard her scream his name once before he felt his knees bend and then scrape onto the floor.

"Melan, are you in pain?" Those hands were placed on one of his knees, if he concentrated hard enough could he feel her life force beating?

He tried to control all the stored memories that he had because the rush of what they held was pulsating uncontrollably, but the persistent nudging of the intruding force in his mind decided at that time that it would fight back with a vengeance. It all but screamed at him to complete his duty and the echoes of that command bounced off the walls of his skull.

She was yelling at him again. What she said though he could not grasp, the battle raging in his mind taking priority.

He could feel her move to him, could feel her tiny warm hands reach up to his face and caress his cheek and then oh so slowly move his face forward. What he felt next he would never forget.

Everything about her was soft and delicate yet despite this she was always in dangerous positions. But he never thought that she could feel _this_ soft. It was addicting, what she was doing to him, so he moved in closer pressing his lips back to hers so he could capture more of its gentle embrace, the chaos that paraded in his mind ebbing away like the rays of the sun before the sun disappeared from the sky.

All too quickly though she parted away from his lips and he opened his eyes to see that she was breathing deeply with her eyes closed, looking as if she had finished a tremendous task.

"Marin." He acknowledged her, vowing never to forget the precious creature that the name represented.

"Melan, do you remember?" Marin asked him the barest hint of curiosity almost unnoticeable.

"Yes." And he would continue to do so.

"Thank goodness…" her voice leaked of relief, but just as quickly she flinched the wound he had created searing through her senses.

Without hesitation he quickly placed one of his paws upon her chest, sending energy through it so that it may heal his horrible mistake. Marin softly asked for her Cosmos and he grabbed it nearby and placed it in her hands. It transformed into her glasses and he could once again see the brightness that seeped from her eyes.

Now he knew for a fact that only Marin could have this effect on him. This feeling of being sensitized.


End file.
